[img align=right]http://www.hailingfrequency.com/images/sto.png[/img]After a rough period of Open Beta Testing and Headstart, Star Trek Online officially opens to the world today from 10am Pacific Standard Time as the game goes retail!

Fans around the world have been waiting for this moment for almost more years than can be counted on one hand, however for a moment there, it was looking like Cryptic might have to make us wait a day or two longer, as the headstart weekend was marred with server instability issues due to the high load of people logging on and playing the game.

However we are happy to say that as of yesterday, the issues appeared to have been fixed, though we are not certain if it was an actual fix, or simply a case of less people logging on due to it being a Monday rather than the weekend.

Suffice it to say that today is going to be another big test for the game - if they cannot keep it stable when the masses start logging on at 10am PST, then they are going to have a serious PR crisis.

Lots of people are looking forward to this game, and its becoming a worldwide event with stores having opened at midnight across the US today and Star Trek events planned in London for the 12th February.

In fact, in terms of sheer markering or publicity, we can safely say that this is the most advertised Star Trek game....EVER! No other Star Trek Game has had anywhere near to this level of marketing or hype, so lets just hope that Cryptic can rise to the occasion, because the last thing that the Star Trek Gaming Franchise, as a whole needs at the moment, is more negative press.

Star Trek Online has the potential to break 1 million users at launch, probably more. Thats a big thing for any MMO, HUGE!

In fact, lets do some maths based on some hypothetical numbers that we at Hailing Frequency have come up with based on our observations

So if Cryptic does rise to the occasion today - and get the shuttle loads of positive press that we hope they will get, AND they succesfully manage to retain all of those users as we have predicted above, Star Trek Online will quickly become the most succesful Star Trek game of all time in terms of sheer profit and it may even stand a chance of getting within stone throwing range of World of Warcraft in terms of success!

So Cryptic Studios - good luck today, we hope you have Champagne on ice but we also equally hope you are prepared technically, physically and mentally for what awaits you today!